Birthdays and Back-to-School Stuff

Leanna at Lizzy's
Birthday Party

Grandma Dianna and Grandpa Joe sent us a carload of stuff care of a friend of theirs who lives locally and we got it today. There were a gazillion school things (clothes, shoes, coats, gloves, hats, etc.) for Leanna, who's rather hard on her clothes, and some birthday gifts for me (end of the month) and Lizzy (yesterday). Also a few school things for Abby who does not really need any, but D&J don't want her to feel left out (some of these will be too big but so much the better; she'll wear them in the spring) and a ton of things for the Treasure Box (all in cute little wrappers so they will be truly surprises).

Lizzy's Birthday Balloons

I confess that I already opened my gift, because I have no willpower to speak of on things like that. A pretty tapestry jacket (the sort of thing one wears with a black top and jeans, or a black dress - can dress an outfit up or down depending on the situation and accessories), a pair of white pants with white-and-peach flowered top, and a pair of coral Bermuda shorts with an off-white-and-multi flowered top. Really nice stuff. And then Lizzy's present, the story behind which I did not hear until today.

Lizzy's Sequined Birthday Hat

Apparently when they visited a month or so ago, Dianna asked Lizzy if she'd like to have a tea party and Lizzy declined "because we don't have the wight hats". So Dianna sent us two straw hats and one felt, along with ribbons and fabric glue and silk flowers and all that so the girls can make "tea party hats". And also a sequined baseball cap for the Birthday Girl, who is thrilled by it. What a great gift!

Happy Birthday Lizzy!

The Amazing Potty Doll

Good Friends on a Swing

Summer birthdays are a lot more affordable at this age than winter ones, if only because use of the park is free. Abby's fourth birthday was hosted by her dad, but her birthdays tend to be spendy because - with a December birthday - we can't just fling a bunch of kids at a free play area and set them loose. But we can with a Labor Day Weekend birthday, at least most years. Seattle weather is variable of course, but good weather in late August through September is as much of a guarantee as we ever get in this area. And it was nice - if a bit too tropical for our temperate rain forest.

A Sweet Creation by Carrie

Lizzy's still little - four today - so I can get away with only inviting family and her "best fwiend Nallie". And since Natalie's (and Baby Emily's) mom is the incomparable Carrie of Sweet Creations by Carrie, well... bonus! I mean, even my dad and stepmom are happy to come to parties for four-year-olds in the park, where they would rather not attend a party at Chuck-e-Cheese, for instance, or McDonald's. Can you blame them? I would probably bow out of the parties at places like those, if I were not more-or-less required. And speaking of Dad and Stepmom, they got Lizzy the sweetest little "potty-trainer" doll, to which you give water and wait for it to do its duty on the little included potty chair. Lizzy's playing with it right now (in the bathroom, thank goodness, and although she had a breakthrough on the potty front a couple of days ago, she can use the constant reminder and practice as well). She got other goodies too, some Duplo animals and the "woof blocks" from Lego she wants to assist her in building houses, and the little binox and hair decs she got from her dad and me.

Cake!

Good day, although everyone except Laston (and maybe even him, in his retreat-from-the-world way) is Dropping Spoons all over the place now. I'm taking normal 8- and 11-year-old behavior as grounds for strangulation, Leanna's getting bossier by the minute, Abby just burst into tears over a change in the schedule for an impromptu neighborhood event, and Lizzy - well, aside from the pottying improvement - Lizzy's melting down over every little thing. We're all hot and tired and grumpy and really? It's actually very satisfying in some ways - this normal end-of-summer-day fatigue. In fact, it's kind of nice.

Happy Birthday Leanna! (Take Two)

Birthday Girl with
Pretty New Hair Decs

My family always spreads birthday celebrations out some, although not usually quite to this extent. But mom was out of town on Leanna's birthday, and as we have her every-other-weekend, Grandma could not do her Birthday Girls' Meal Out until this morning. We went to The Original Pancake House (Dutch Babies! Yum!) and Mom got Leanna some really cute things, just up Leanna's alley.

Squuueeeeeeee!!!!!

Leanna is our animal-lover, so Grandma took that into account. Such cute stuff! A pretty watch, a beautiful t-shirt (mossy green organic cotton with a horse pattern on the front), and assorted small stuff like lip gloss and hair decs from Hawaii and funky monkey socks. She liked it all, but the thing that really made her squee was - of all things - one of those calendars my mom gets from supporting various nature causes. This one had baby animals and I think that after a certain point, only baby animals could have heard the "OMG - so cute!!!" from Leanna and Abby. It was that high-pitched.

Sisters

So the big girls are out playing, and after lunch I'm taking them to Saturday's Child to pick up a pair of shoes for Abby (who already broke her new tennies) and as many school clothes as I can find for my $50 credit for Leanna (because the box of school clothes (and Lizzy's birthday present) from Grandma Dianna has gotten lost in delivery - we'll get them but not this week). I have no cash money, but $50 in credit at Saturday's Child can buy a lot of clothes, assuming they're in her size (she's more teenage-sized than her sisters and the availability of teenage clothes at a kids' consignment shop is highly variable). In between I'll be doing homework and laundry. There's quite a bit of laundry in the form of linens and a few clothes we've been storing for two years - it should be washed before we use it again.

Again with the domestic weekends. Nice.

Holiday Weekend

Lizzy's THIRD Birthday

Not that we're doing anything holidayish - unless one counts Lizzy's fourth birthday (this Sunday! Where did the time go?) as a holiday. But I kind of prefer it that way - picnics and the like are fun and all, but they're a lot of work. For Lizzy's birthday (because she's still very young) we can get away with just going to the park with her "best fwiend Nallie" and our family, and having Wonderful Cake (snickerdoodle!), thanks to Sweet Creations by Carrie.

A Sweet Creation by Carrie

Tonight we're having Friday Board Games (being on hiatus from Friday Mage Games - stoopid Real Life always getting in the way and all) and we're having a finger food kinda meal. I mean, I'm making a cucumber salad (because I bought the cukes at Costco so there are a lot of them), but the rest of it is like chicken wings, frozen taquitos, frozen spring rolls, my mom's homemade bread with artichoke spread, like that. For those on Google + following my Star Trek: The Original Series posts, you'll have to wait until Sunday night; Abby's not likely to watch and therefore not likely to make 8yo comments of the vagaries of '60s science-fiction/western television tonight nor tomorrow night.

Tomorrow is school work day for me but first the girls and I are going out with my mom to celebrate Leanna's birthday. Grandma makes a practice of taking birthday girls out for a girls-only meal (sometimes just the birthday girl, sometimes more of us), and she was out of town on Leanna's actual birthday. Lizzy and Grandma and I will go for Lizzy's birthday after Lizzy's first day of preschool next week. In the middle of typing this, I got an answer back from the job I really wanted. Sigh - they have "decided to move forward with other candidates at this time". Depressing, but no dwelling on it allowed; I can't afford the emotional energy it takes to angst overmuch. Back into the trenches! (Writing about my disappointment always helps mitigate it).


Monday the hubs has to work... but as he gets paid overtime for working a holiday I will not stress overmuch on that. Abby and Lizzy will be here with me, but I'm sure Abby will be out playing all day, and I'll dole out popsicles to half the neighborhood as usual, and Lizzy & I will hang out and work on potty skills and polite behavior so she's that much more ready on Wednesday. Sounds good to me.

I Can See My Dresser!

Dresser. Bureau. Chest of Drawers. Whatever you want to call it. I can see it now.

There have been boxes stacked up in my room since the drop-dead date for handing my keys back in after cleaning the garage, because what with the tooth and all, I got derailed from cleaning it out as fast as I could otherwise have done. I've been plugging away, a few boxes a day, but with my school and Abby's and the kids' tendencies to fall violently in love with old toys they haven't seen in a gazillion years, it had been slow going.

There are a few boxes left - six in the living room and ditto in the bedroom - but the mere fact that it does not look like we just moved in is good enough for me! I can see the dresser. And the third bookshelf. And there's even natural light now; it is no longer all blocked off by stacked boxes. Amazing. There's now enough space (actual cleaning is a separate issue) for us to have Friday Night Board Games (we're taking a break from Friday Night Mage Game) tomorrow.

Not my room to the right, but the general point is the same. Once Lizzy wakes up (she crashed on the couch) and Laston wakes up (ditto) and Abby gets home from school (she got to take the bus - which is a huge thrill for her), we'll have a snack and then get some more work done, of both the housecleaning and homework varieties.

And I'll even get an hour or so to myself this evening. Sounds wonderful.

First Day of School (Abby)

Third Grade. I can't believe it. And it took a certain amount of convincing the staff that I wasn't a stalker with a camera, but I managed it (I started this blog mid-school-year last year, so they had not seen me wandering the halls with my camera before). But I got permission from the parents of the photographic subjects posted here, and I never print last names or specific locations. I love my kid's school and I want that fact known, but not to the point where everyone and their brother knows which school it is, you know? They are great - from the office staff through the teaching staff, custodians, you name it, we love Abby's school. I even had a gossip session with a couple other moms in the girls' bathroom about how great the teachers are, especially (said the mom with the most experience) the third grade teachers. It was a little surreal, lurking in the girls' restroom gossiping; I was expecting us to check each others' mascara at any moment.

We got to see Abby's second grade teacher, Ms M., who actually got Abby interested in spelling and in reading just for fun last year. We got to see Abby's first grade teacher, Ms. E., who (thank goodness) is back on traffic duty this year. She's a teeny tiny little thing, so gentle with her first-graders, but where recalcitrant parents in the pickup circle are concerned... she takes no prisoners. And the librarian, and the gym teacher, and the music teacher, and the PTSA moms and dads. We watched the welcome-back assembly and the kids clearly enjoyed it (although there was a bit of groaning from the oldest kids when the prize their school had won from Target turned out to be $500 worth... of books).

I got several more pictures but have not gotten permission from their parents yet. There were a number of kids whose parents' permission I do have, but I did not get their pictures (because I'm not that stalker-with-a-camera). The young gentleman to the right (below) for instance is Abby's friend (and former "fiancee") and I have permission from his parents. She does like the skinny blond boys. The little girl to the left (also below) mugging with Abby we've known almost as long (again, from preschool); she and Abby have this odd relationship where they are Best Friends Forever... until they're not.

Matthew

Abby and Amelia

Abby and Abbey

So, parents, employees, and other denizens of My Kid's School... I'm not a stalker. Just a parent who's pleased and proud that her child goes to a good public school. And yeah, I am updating with another pic, having gotten permission from another parent. Abby and Abbey were in the same class last year and the coincidence of names amuses them both. A lot.